Borderlands 2: Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage Review

When another vault is discovered on Pandora with an inscription stating that it will only open when the ultimate champion has spilled the blood of the biggest coward on it, everyone’s favorite explosive weapons maker, Mr. Torgue, comes to Pandora and begins a tournament to find the ultimate badass. Are you badass enough to journey to the Badass Crater of Badassitute and take part in the Campaign of Carnage to win the title of Ultimate Badass for yourself?

Even though I saw the shortened introduction to the Campaign of Carnage during the trailer, I couldn’t help but laugh when it played again as soon as I traveled to the Badass Crater of Badassitute, not to mention the brilliance in the name alone. I understand that some people don’t find Borderlands’s sense of humor funny, but there’s something about it that really ignites mine. If anything, my only complaint about the writing in this DLC pack is I wanted more. Mr. Torgue is such a great character and I wish he has more insane things to say.

Watching the trailer and the opening of the DLC had me worried. Mad Moxie’s Underdome Riot was the worst Borderlands DLCs and I was worried that the tournament Mr. Torgue spoke of would be yet another set of combat arenas for me to mindlessly blow through and be devoid of all the clever writing that makes Borderlands so much more than Diablo with guns. While there are combat arenas, they are fun and only require one session each before you can move on. They’re also so much more diverse than the levels from Mad Moxie.

The Badass Crater of Badassitute (which I love saying) isn’t just some bar with entrances to combat arenas, it’s a sprawling crater with several connected areas. While there isn’t a new vehicle and the sand skiff doesn’t work here, moving around isn’t as much of a hassle as it could be in Captain Scarlett. I do wish you could have finally flown a vulture or drive the new motorcycle that the enemies have, but there is a lot of content here so I can’t really complain.

There is yet another raid boss here and plenty of optional, kill everything that moves missions for you to conquer with three of your closest gunhands. There is plenty of content to rationalize spending your $10 and it brings back my two favorite characters, Moxie and Tiny Tina. It seems that we won’t be getting another Underdome Riot and that is fine by me. The recently announced Sir Hammerlock DLC will have to prove that though.

Just as Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty before it, Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage is simply more Borderlands 2, and that’s not a bad thing. I firmly believe that we are currently in a deficit of Borderlands 2, existing content be damned, and more is exactly what we need. Mr. Torgue is a fantastic character and if we don’t see him again it will be a loss for the franchise. Now all we need is that DLC that will up the level cap and everything will be right with Pandora.